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Offline FLi !

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Owen Undergoes Minor Surgery
« on: March 25, 2006, 04:12:16 AM »
The Times     March 25, 2006

Owen setback tightens screw on England
By George Caulkin

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,293-2102696,00.html

GIVEN THAT Sven-Göran Eriksson has long maintained that prospects for England’s success at the World Cup finals will be determined by the extent of his injury list, there can only be distress at Michael Owen suffering a setback in his recuperation from a fractured metatarsal. While the striker hopes to be playing again within four weeks, he now has little scope to prove his fitness before Germany.

Owen last night underwent what his club described as a “minor procedure” at a Manchester hospital to tighten a screw that was inserted in his foot in January. The forward has not appeared for Newcastle United since he suffered the injury at White Hart Lane on New Year’s Eve and although his mood remains upbeat, he can scarcely afford another breakdown before the tournament.

The news will be troubling to the England head coach. If all goes to plan, Owen will be training inside two or three weeks and the 26-year-old aims to return to the Newcastle first team for the home game against West Bromwich Albion on April 22. He would then have only two more competitive matches before the end of the season — against Birmingham City and Chelsea — in which to hone his conditioning.

Eriksson names his provisional 26-man World Cup squad on May 8, a week before the official Fifa deadline, when three standby players will be discarded. England then play friendly internationals against Hungary on May 30 and Jamaica on June 3 and while, theoretically, Owen should be fresh for his side’s start to the competition the next weekend, he can hardly hope to have reached peak form.

“I have been reassured by Michael’s surgeon that the World Cup is still well within Michael’s compass,” Glenn Roeder, the Newcastle caretaker manager, said of Owen, who had felt pain in his foot earlier this week and subsequently had a scan on Thursday. “People are getting hysterical, but we very much expect him to get a couple of games in before the end of the season.”

If Owen returns against West Bromwich, he will not have kicked a ball in anger for 16 weeks, four more than his surgeon’s most optimistic prognosis at the time of the original injury. As England’s chief attacking threat and a world-class talent who inspires fear and respect from opponents — he has scored 35 goals in 75 appearances for his country — his continuing absence is alarming.

It also heralds more gloom for a club that paid Real Madrid a record £16.5 million for him last August. Owen has scored seven times in his ten league games for Newcastle, but his goal ratio is balanced by the scarcity of his appearances in a black-and-white shirt. Supporters will be hoping he does not take advantage of a contractual clause that allows him to discuss a transfer with clubs that bid £12 million for him this summer.

Attracting a high-profile manager to succeed Graeme Souness may go some way to appeasing Owen’s ambitions and Shay Given yesterday became the first Newcastle player to advocate the appointment of Martin O’Neill. The Ulsterman is the favoured candidate of Freddy Shepherd, the chairman, but Given’s endorsement is significant.

The Ireland goalkeeper is in the midst of unresolved contract negotiations — he has one more season of his deal to serve — but he spoke about the prospect of O’Neill’s arrival as “very exciting”, adding, “if you asked the players, I think the general consensus would be the same”.

There has already been one meeting between O’Neill and Shepherd; further movement is unlikely before the end of the season, by which time the FA will have decided on a replacement for Eriksson and O’Neill will have heard further reports about his wife’s medical condition.
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Offline Augi

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Re: Owen Undergoes Minor Surgery
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2006, 11:09:44 AM »
Let's wish him a speedy recovery.We want him there for the World Cup.We don't want them to have any excuses.

 

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